Biophysics and Bioelectronics for Theranostics

Event information

Start:

Friday, Jan. 25, 2013, 01:30PM

End:

Friday, Jan. 25, 2013, 02:30PM

Venue:

Academic Health Center 3-205

Abstract:

Theranostics is referred to as a treatment strategy that combines therapeutics with diagnostics, aiming to monitor the response to treatment, which would be a key part of personalized medicine and require considerable advances in predictive medicine. This research area is a rapidly progressing interdisciplinary research field that is based on the cooperative work of chemists, physicists, biologists, medical doctors and engineers. For diagnostics, biosensors are one of the most attractive approaches for rapid, accurate and sensitive diagnostics, especially for point of care testings. As for therapeutics, non-invasive therapy including electrical therapy and magnetic therapy recently has made significant progress based on the deep understanding of biophysical and bioelectrical properties of biomolecules and the development of nanotechnology and fabrication technology. The unique electronic, optical and catalytic properties of engineered nanoparticles including carbon nanotubes, graphene, metallic nanoparticles, etc pave the way to new applications particular in medicine and pharmacology. On the other hand, various biomolecules exhibit the unique biological properties such as bio-recognition, self-assembly properties. In my lab, we are integrating the physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials and the biological properties of biomolecules with MEMS technology and analytical systems to develop highly sensitive miniaturized devices for biomedical sensing and noninvasive medical therapy. This lecture will outline our recent research activities for the fundamental study of physical and electrical properties of biomolecules such as cells, as well as the development of a new generation of micro/nano biosensors that combine aspects of “top-down” nanofabrication approach with a “bottom-up” self assembly method. Several newly developed biosensors will be introduced including: 1) Cell Impedance and SPR biosensors for real time whole cell analysis and cell manipulation. 2) Paper based strips for telemedicine and point of care testing (POCT). .

Bio:

Prof. Chenzhong Li earned his M.Sc in electrochemistry and PhD in bioengineering from Kumamoto University (Japan) in 1996 and 2000. Before joining FIU in 2006, he held a position as a Research Officer at the Nanobiotechnology lab in the Canada National Research Council (Montreal). Currently he is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Florida International University. Dr Li’s research has focused primarily on the clinical point-of-care, biodefense and environment related applications of bioelectronic sensing technology. His research activities to date have resulted in 5 patents, 68 peer-reviewed journal papers and proceedings (H-index 19 by 2012), 2 books and 4 book chapters, over 110 presentations at conferences including about 73 keynote/invited lectures and seminars worldwide. In addition to his publication activities, he is the guest editors of American Journal of Biomedical Science, and the Journal of Neuroscience and Neuroengineering. He is the associate editor of the journals of Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Chemical Sensors and Biosensors Journal. He is an academic editor of PLoS ONE. He also serves on several journal editorial boards as well as being a reviewer and panelist for NIH, NSF and NSERC (Canada). In recognition of his work, Dr. Li has received several awards and honors including the Japanese Monbusyo Fellowship, the FIU faculty research award (2008), the Kauffman Professor Award in 2009 and 2011 and 2013 Japanese JSPS fellow